


Monster Mash

by thecryingwillow



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M, Gen, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-03-21
Updated: 2014-03-19
Packaged: 2018-01-16 07:03:05
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,943
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1336405
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thecryingwillow/pseuds/thecryingwillow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ruby deals with the consequences of being back in Storybrooke due to the second curse: confusion, broken mugs, and a budding romance with a man who is definitely a doctor, not a vet. Spoilers for the second half of season three, starting with 3x12, "New York City Serenade."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Monster Mash

**Author's Note:**

> I've always had a thing for second bananas, and Dr. Whale and Ruby are no exception. Ruby really shouldn't be considered a second banana, but unfortunately it turns out that actors are real people with real conflicting lives, who take opportunities when they see them--as a result, we haven't had Ruby in the show in the capacity she should be (as a main character, like she was early on) for a while. And Whale would be a main character if his actor had any say in it, but we live in uncertain times at the whim of the show's creators.
> 
> So I decided to do the fanfiction thing and portray exactly what I want to happen, when it happens, as one does. My plan is to write an accompanying chapter of this per aired episode for the rest of this third season, because we're not going to get nearly enough Ruby for my tastes. And if I'm writing what I want, why not have a little fun with it? 
> 
> On with the show.
> 
>  **Email** : unfoundgallimaufry@gmail.com | **Tumblr** : [temporarily](http://temporarily.tumblr.com)

Ruby wakes up in her room, a year after saying goodbye to Emma and Henry, in the exact same clothing she was wearing when everything ended. Her legs are tangled up in her comforter, and her shoes are still on, three inch heels, poking through the holes in her crochet blanket.

She wiggles her toes in her shoes. Coughs once, twice. For a minute, everything is hazy. She’s warm and comfortable and this is definitely far from the first time she’s fallen asleep in her clothing. Before the curse ended she used to come home in full makeup and tumble into bed still wearing everything, waking up at five with Granny pounding on her door and a splitting headache, her leather jacket wrapped around her ankles.

At least she took off her jacket this time, she thinks, and rolls over to rummage around the piles of her clothing to find the glass of water she undoubtedly left somewhere on the floor.

“Oh my God,” she says out loud, halfway bent over herself, and sits up immediately. The memories don’t all fade in like a screen: they’re there immediately. Standing holding her grandmother’s arm, holding her breath, watching Snow kiss Emma’s forehead, watching Emma cry.

She’d never seen Emma cry before. She’d never seen Regina cry before.  

Her room is the same. The hallway is the same. Her grandmother’s room is at the end. Ruby stumbles into the living room in bare feet. There’s light coming in through the drapes, which are pulled neatly. The wood floors creak loudly (the worst part about sneaking in, always had been).

Granny looks up from her rocking chair, her knitting neatly folded in her lap. Something round. A sock heel. “About time you got up.”

“Emma,” Ruby begins, stammering. There are so many questions, and she can’t figure a way to get them all out of her mouth fast enough. Before she can keep going, Granny holds up a hand, shaking her head.

“David and Mary Margaret have already been here,” she declares as she pushes her glasses up her nose, and peers down at her knitting, finding the stitches she’s dropped. Someday Ruby will be able to truly perfect the art of being as unaffected as her grandmother is: by the world, by events thereof. In the meantime, she stands there, baffled, while her grandmother continues to be as calm as one could possibly be faced with the impossible circumstances of their lives. Again. “You were asleep. They let you rest. We talked for a bit. There’s a town hall meeting later today. We all remember the same last minutes. Regina, Emma, Henry, everything. We were going back—and then we weren’t. We were here.”

“Mary Margaret and David were here, and we don’t remember anything about having gotten here, but you didn’t think this was important enough to wake me up?” Ruby yelps, and begins searching next to the kitchen table for more comfortable shoes, indignant, filled with horror at missing them, at missing everything. At missing—what? Nothing?

“There’s nothing we can do,” Granny says, her voice quiet, and Ruby, on her knees already, stops. “They won’t remember us.”

The curse. “Regina gave them new memories,” Ruby murmurs, and rocks back on her heels until she is kneeling, wrapping her arms around herself. Regina had given them new memories. Of Emma being Henry’s mother. Of having never given Henry up before, like she had before the curse. So that they could be happy, and together, and never know loneliness in the way they had before. Two peas in a pod. Ruby’s heart sinks into her stomach.

“They won’t know us,” Granny cautions. “They won’t know that the town exists at all.”

“Then who—how—“

“Well, clearly if we knew that, I would have woken you up, wouldn’t I?”

Ruby looks helplessly at her grandmother, and slowly stands up, feeling the weight of this knowledge drag her down like lead. “Then what do we do?”

Granny looks at Ruby over her glasses, and smiles grimly. “It’s seven AM. We’ve got a restaurant to run.”

*** 

Ruby finds herself pouring coffee three hours later. Showered, make up on, she hadn’t gone to the usual lengths to find something suitable to wear. Black t-shirt. Red skirt. Heels. Every time someone walks by the diner, confusedly stumbling around like they’ve lost something, she watches Leroy run up to them and yell the exact same thing at them.  _Yes. We’re back. I know, I know. It’s crazy. We’re back. David and Mary Margaret say to wait. We’ve been gone a year, so something definitely happened. We’re going to have a town meeting later. For now, just…_

Just exist. Just keep doing the same thing. Just keep doing the same thing you did forever, without remembering that you’ve done it. That’s always the default plan. Go be a waitress. Ruby looks at the coffee pot in her hands, at the counter of the diner, and thinks about how old everyone is. Cursed for decades, never a birthday party in sight.

Of course David would tell everyone to do exactly the same thing. David isn’t the type to rush into things. He probably wants to assess things for himself before they leap to conclusions. But everyone in this town is a hero in some capacity, and Ruby feels that old itch again, digging underneath her skin, urging her on. To go find Regina. To go be with Snow and David. To go figure things out, and be part of their gang, and have a plan. To not be the waitress. To be Ruby, the kickass person with a job other than waitressing.

She pours coffee into her cup instead, and sits down at the bar. She’s not a queen. She’s not even remotely royalty. No one in her family has ever been royalty. Just cursed. And not starving, nowhere near it, but certainly not rich, either.

Mary Margaret had stopped in a few minutes earlier, and while Ruby had her dearest friend in her arms and exclaimed over the fact she somehow managed to be over seven months pregnant—that’s how David knew it had been a year, it must be—Mary Margaret had just smiled, and nodded, looking shell-shocked.

Ruby wonders what it must be like, to wake up one day seven months pregnant, without an ounce of preparation. Just… there. Surprise! You’re pregnant! Presumably with your husband’s baby, but you never know! Because you live in a town which comes from an entirely different world which you apparently may or may not have spent the last year in without remembering it now! Magic. Woosh.

Ruby had offered to mix Snow a strong drink, until she’d remembered that it was both nine in the morning and that her friend was clearly pregnant now. Snow had laughed anyway, and had downed a glass of orange juice rather worryingly quickly before running out the door again. Or rather, sort of waddling out the door. Quickly.

Ruby doesn’t feel any different. They’ve lost a year, presumably. All she feels is like she’d been walking a lot. Her calves hurt. Looking down at them underneath the folds of her skirt, she flexes experimentally.

Yup. She’d definitely been doing a lot of walking; her calves are perfect. But that wasn’t a clue in itself—you walked everywhere in the Enchanted Forest, especially when you were in a large group of people. She doubts that she would have left Snow, and if the rest of Storybrooke had been transported back, then it was likely they would have traveled as a group, under Charming and Snow, the anchor. To their castle. To Regina’s castle.

Now there was an interesting thought. Regina. What would Regina do, once they were back? Ruby stares thoughtfully out the window of the diner, where Archie is sitting on the front steps of his office, talking with Leroy, who is waiting for the next batch of people to yell news at. Regina. She isn’t exactly an evil queen anymore. Ruby won’t say, even in her head, that Regina isn’t evil anymore, but she’s certainly… less evil.

Things were so much simpler when Ruby could put people into separate categories in her mind. Evil. Good. Evil Queen. Good Witch. But like this world, which is overly complicated and frustrating, people are even more so now.

Could Regina have cursed them again? If it were the Regina that Red had known before, the Regina who had put dark circles beneath Snow’s eyes, who had rode black horses trampling over peasants, who had cursed them all to years’ worth of the same moments over and over… that Regina would relish the opportunity to make everyone relive their nightmares. That Regina would happily crush her office phone into someone’s skull and eat breakfast in the same half hour.

But that Regina was gone. Long gone. Henry had come, and with him came change. And Emma had come, and with her had come more change. (Thinking about Henry and Emma just brings pain, so Ruby attempts to shove those thoughts into the back of her head, wherever it is that her memories of the past year are also hidden. If she has to forget things, they may as well be things that she personally chooses.) Regina is differentnow, but is she different enough to be good? Truly good?

Probably not. But maybe not threatening.

What had they done when they returned? Did they even return in the first place? Ruby may not be able to admit that Regina is evil anymore, but she’s perfectly willing to say that Regina could have messed the spell up in the first place. Or maybe it was Pan. It would be just like Pan to send them someplace else, someplace even more evil than this world, with its unhappy endings.

“Are you okay?”

Ruby jumps so hard that she almost drops the coffee pot she’d been holding in her hand. In front of her is Belle, who is carrying a bag that looks to be filled with books. “Oops,” Belle says, reaching a hand out to steady Ruby, who lets out an embarrassed laugh and puts the coffee pot down.

“Sorry,” she says sheepishly. Belle shakes her head, a fond smile on her face.

“You looked pretty lost in thought,” she laughs quietly, putting her books down and climbing onto the bar to take a seat on a stool. “I know how that can be.”

She does, doesn’t she? As always happens around Belle, Ruby feels both relieved to see her and guilty, remembering the weeks with Belle in the hospital. Another thing to push into that forgetting place. That area was going to overflow soon. She’d have to deal with that. Someday. Not today. Not now. Instead Ruby grabs the orange juice from the refrigerator and pours a glass for Belle before she asks for it. That’s the useful thing about living in a small town filled with people you know well enough to die for: you’re usually pretty confident about their orders.

“I assume you’ve talked to David and Mary Margaret?”

“We’ve lost a year,” Belle murmurs, her voice quiet. “It seems impossible.”

“I’m really sick of impossible things happening to us.”

“They do seem to target us specifically.”

“It’s because we’re so hot,” Ruby declares, in an attempt to make Belle smile. She’s rewarded with a small grin. “Evil can’t resist hanging out around us all the time.”

Belle’s face falls again, and she stares into her orange juice. Ruby hits herself mentally, frustrated. “I mean… you know, like Regina.”

Belle looks up. “Do you think she…?”

“I don’t know.” Ruby runs a hand through her hair, which always helps her think. “I just… don’t know. I mean, she doesn’t exactly have the cleanest record.”

“No, she doesn’t.” Belle knows that better than most, clearly, and her face is not friendly when talking about Regina. But not hardened, either. “But she’s different, now. She loves Henry. And why would she want to come back to Storybrooke now that he’s gone?”

Ruby shrugs, always awed and humbled by Belle’s ability to forgive those who wrong her. The next thing you know she’ll be offering to wash Hook’s laundry. “Maybe she woke up on the wrong side of the bed.”

Belle snorts, and takes a sip of orange juice. “Wouldn’t be the first time.”

“No, it seems to be a chronic problem with her.” Ruby gets out the sanitizing rag from under the cupboards and begins to wash down the counter behind Belle’s glass.

“She should buy a better mattress.”

“A less evil one, for sure. Oh, maybe there’s a pea under it. That would explain everything.”

A group of people is walking around the corner. Ruby watches through the window as Leroy leaps to his feet, startling Pogo and Archie, and takes in a huge breath to begin to yell the town news.

Her amusement is cut short by the ringing of the diner’s bell, announcing the arrival of the next group of shell-shocked townies. As soon as she’d started working she’d handwritten a sign in Sharpee on cardboard and put it up on the door next to the open sign: YES, WE WILL SERVE LIQUOR BEFORE NOON TODAY. This had, unsurprisingly, brought in a fair amount of people. The diner already sort of functions as an unofficial town meeting spot; although the official town hall meeting isn't for hours yet, Ruby knows that most of the people who plan on attending will show up at the diner sometime today. She sees that heading up the group is Ashley, Alex bouncing on her hip, and Ruby smiles big and wide, comes around the counter to give her friend a hug before the orders start coming in. "What are you doing here? You never get out."

"Alex is old enough to come in now," Ashley says, her voice trembling, and Ruby takes another look at Alex. Again, Mary Margaret and David's suspicions confirmed, in the form of a child, albeit this one having been actually born. The girl looks shyly at her, one hand placed carefully around Ashley's neck, the other with its thumb placed firmly in its owner's mouth. Ruby swallows.

The last time she'd visited Ella, Alexandra had been almost one year old. This girl is at least two, and has the bright gleam of curiosity and awareness beaming out of her.

"Well, you've gotten big," Ruby says, her voice sounding cheerful and fake to her own ears. Ashley's eyes are brimming with tears. Ruby squeezes her arm. At least Mary Margaret had only woken up pregnant--to miss an entire year of your child's life, one of the most important, to wake up to find your child fully capable of things you hadn't been there to witness her learn? This day is only starting, and Ruby has already begun to dread the rest of it. "We'll get our memories back," she tells Ashley, trying to sound confident. "Mary Margaret and David will find a way."

"What if they don't?" Ashley asks, pulling Alex in toward her tighter. "What if--what if we're stuck like this forever--again? And they can't figure out a way to get us back home?"

"Then someone else will," comes a strong, confident voice from behind her, and Ruby looks up to see Dr. Whale. He looks different, and for a moment she can't pinpoint why, until she realizes he's wearing a regular brown coat, and what looks like a sweater, and khakis. He looks so strange not wearing his lab coat. Like he's uncomfortable in his own skin.

Ashley turns to look at him, her face spreading with relief, her whole body relaxing. Ruby notices that everyone else around them relaxes too; even Belle, sitting on her stool, sighs a little. It's like having the doctor say that everything will be okay automatically makes it all okay. Just because he's the doctor, and that's what he's supposed to do. He's smiling in the way he does when he knows that people are watching him, the warm, comforting smile that crinkles the edges of his eyes. 

Ruby suddenly realizes that she knows that smile is fake.

And that she hates it.

"We'll get some answers out of them at the town meeting," Whale continues, his voice calm, steady, in control. "If the person who cursed us is there," here his voice becomes contemplative, but only enough so that everyone knows that he's considered the possibility that it's Regina, and is not afraid of that possibility, "then I'm sure they'll be brought to justice."

The room breathes a collective sigh of relief, and then everyone's smiling again, as if there's something that's been cleared in the air. The regulars begin to make their way to their regular booths, and Ruby realizes that she's been staring at the doctor a rather long time. Feeling embarrassed for no reason she can discern, and also more than a little annoyed that her fellow townspeople are so easily swayed by authority, she picks up the coffee pot again, along with the one for decaf, and begins to make rounds through the booths. She's done this gig since she was seventeen. Or has she? One of her has. That will never stop being confusing, having two people in your head at once. It's not even that, though. It's two people in your head who are also one. She thinks about what David said, when the curse had first been broken and they'd all wanted to skip town, that he wouldn't want to give up being David Nolan, that David makes him a better person. 

Does having Ruby make Red a better person? She isn't sure. It certainly makes her a person more prone to wearing short skirts. She's worn less of those since remembering everything, but they're still in her closet, and she ends up looking at them every night before going to sleep, staring her in the face from her bed. She'd felt fun, wearing those clothes. Like she could flirt her way to the next town over, and from there, to the world. That would have never been possible, of course. It was all a lie, made up in her head. All her memories from Ruby were a lie. But that doesn't mean she's any less Ruby, any more than it means she's any less Red. In this world, calling herself Red makes her feel odd, like it's a costume she's putting on. She wonders if it'd be the same back home--back in the Enchanted Forest. Not really  _home_. Not anymore.

Her eyes stray to where Whale has perched himself at the bar, at the end of it toward the back. He's looking at his pager, and then, after that, looking up, and he catches her eye. She looks away immediately, feeling her cheeks burning.

She'd meant what she'd said, before, that night at the docks, when she'd told him that she intended to make the best of the new life Regina had unintentionally given them. And part of that meant thinking of here--of Storybrooke--as home. And someday, maybe, the rest of the world can be home, too. 

Ruby wonders what he remembers about that night. Her stomach does a flip, and she's actually grateful when Leroy bounds into the diner to repeat his message, because it means she won't have to think about that anymore, and maybe it will distract the doctor long enough for her to fill his coffee cup without him noticing her.

She is not that lucky, of course. His eyes follow her as she crosses behind the counter and gingerly reaches over it to fill his mug. She's so careful to avoid looking at his face that she's startled when he muses, "You look tired."

Ruby looks at him then, really looks at him. He looks--well, he looks  _exhausted_. There are dark circles under his eyes, and his shoulders are rigid and tense. He looks like he hasn't actually slept in a year. Then, with a sinking feeling, she realizes that maybe he hasn't. "You're one to talk."

"Touche," he answers, raising his eyebrows. "But those of us indebted to the medical vocation are used to sleep deprivation."

"So are those of us in the restaurant industry who are required to rise bright and early," she replies, smiling a little. He takes a deep sip of his coffee, and she wonders how much of it he drinks on a regular basis. He doesn't smell like booze right now. That surprises her. The last few times she's caught his scent there has been the always-present background coloring of alcohol. But today he just smells like himself: paper and ink, hand sanitizer and rubber dusted with powder, and the underlying scent of just him. 

"It's not that early," he retorts.

"Anymore," she says, "although it was this morning, when I got up. And then I had to deal with the fact that we were here, again. And you know, freak out about that, for a while." She watches as he runs his fingertips over the lip of his mug, absent-mindedly.

"Yes," he murmurs. "Unexpected."

"You could say that."

"What do you think?" He asks not like he's giving a test, but like he genuinely wants to know what she thinks. That surprises Ruby, and she pauses, too flustered by his genuine look to do anything but take the question seriously. Encompassed in it is a bunch of things, implied: why are we here again? Who do you think did it? Was it Regina? Was it someone else? 

"I don't know," Ruby says finally, and shrugs, finding herself absentmindedly playing with the end of the braid she'd tied back this morning with a red ribbon. His eyes follow her hands. "Regina is... complicated now. I didn't think she'd do something like this, but I don't know that I trust her to have not, either." 

He nods, still focused on her hands. "It wouldn't be the first time she did something unexpected, with a goal in mind."

"Henry," Ruby says firmly, because he has a name. "Maybe... I don't know. Maybe she has a plan to get him back."

Whale shrugs. He really looks uncomfortable in his brown jacket, hunching over the counter. When he's sitting here in front of her alone, he looks like he's been doubled in half. Gone is the man who confidently sucked everyone's fear away. It's almost like he sucked all their fear into  _himself_ , Ruby thinks. She gets the feeling, talking to him, like his Storybrooke self and his self from before are much different than anyone else's. Than even hers.

Looking at his face, she remembers that night at the dock. Her stomach promptly does a flip. To cover this, she smiles widely at him, all teeth, and blinks several times, attempting to not look like a serial killer. _  
_

"So hey, how's the hospital?" she asks brightly, searching for something to talk about that doesn't begin with the sentence _so have you thought about committing suicide recently_. "Still standing?"

"Still standing." He frowns. "I went there as soon as I woke up and we were--here." She watches as he takes a deep sip of coffee, as if thinking of the best way to word his next sentence. "I wanted to check that all the medications were there, that it wasn't different, that it wasn't just a building. But everything was the same. Exactly the same." He shakes his head, and laughs a little, darkly. "I even had the keys attached to my damn belt."

"Well that's good, right?" she prompts. "I mean, that we still have all the medications, and stuff?"

"It's fine," he says, frustratedly waving her words away, "but that doesn't answer the question as to how they're still  _there_."

"Well, you said it yourself, we'll get it out of them at the meeting," Ruby tries, "and it's not like Mary Margaret is particularly good at keeping secrets."

He laughs at that, an actual laugh, and Ruby feels a jolt of success even as she feels guilty for putting down her friend, even though it's something that Mary Margaret would say about herself. It's just that Whale almost never smiles like he's enjoying anything: his smiles are succinct and calculated, like he plans every single one, and if Ruby can get one out of him that's genuine, instead of self-afflicted...

Her reverie is of course broken once more by the sound of the diner bell, and the sound of Leroy's enthusiastic yelling voice. "THERE ARE PEOPLE HERE WHO WEREN'T HERE BEFORE," Leory announces at the top of his lungs. "ROBIN HOOD AND HIS MEN ARE IN THE FOREST."

"Robin Hood?" Ruby asks, dropping the coffee pot to the counter with a clang _,_  sloshing it all over the counter. Everyone turns to look from Leroy to her. " _The_ Robin Hood?"

"Unless there's another guy going by Robin Hood who also just so happens to have a gang of Merry Men," Leroy answers, eyes narrowing, "which kind of seems unlikely, don't you think?"

"Sorry," Ruby tries to recover, attempting to clean up the mess she's made on the counter, but finding it hard not to grin all the same with excitement. Whale looks from her to Leroy and back to her again, frowning, like he's trying not to say something. "It's just that--it's just that when we were in the Enchanted Forest--when I was a little girl--we used to hear stories about Robin Hood."

"Everyone did," offers another dwarf at the foot of the counter--Happy. "Robs from the rich, gives to the poor."

"The key word being 'robbing,'" Whale mutters.

"From the  _rich_ ," Ruby emphasizes, and looks at Leroy again. "How did you find out that they're at the forest?"

"We saw them when we were checking for more people," Leroy says, crossing his arms, looking everything like his original name. "David and Mary Margaret said they were good guys, that they were just as confused as we were. They're  _new,_ though--they weren't here before. Which means whoever cursed us has something different in mind." The townspeople around him nod as he looks around for confirmation. "I happen to think that this curse looks awfully  _familiar_ , and that whoever cursed us might have done it before." More murmurs of angry agreement. "It's not exactly out of character for her to go and decide to do something evil, and drag more good guys into this mess."

"Or maybe someone else did this," Ruby says, and is surprised to hear that her voice sounds confident and clear. "It's not like we all made only one enemy."

Leroy sputters at her, appalled. "Are you defending that--that witch?"

Ruby swallows. Is she? Is she defending Regina? After all that Regina's done? Tortured her friends, almost killed them, killed enough people? Regina is horrible enough. But there's something about this, this town, this situation, this spell, that feels different. Ruby can't explain it, and as she looks at the faces of the people around her, she knows better than to try. But there's something in the air here. Something-- _smells_ different. "No," she says finally. "I just--was offering an alternative explanation."

"A pretty unlikely one if you ask me," Leroy sneers, and turns to Happy. "Come on, brother. Let's go finish telling people the news."

They leave in a huff. The townspeople in the diner begin to settle down to normal. Ruby fights the urge to roll her eyes unsuccessfully, which prompts a small tittering laugh from Belle down the bar. Ruby had almost forgotten that her friend was there. Belle can be so quiet, so out of the way sometimes. But she's always watching. Ruby flashes a smile at her, grateful. Belle is more observant in a single hour than Ruby feels she will ever be in an entire lifetime.

"I think you're right to be cautious," Belle says soothingly. "We don't know that it was Regina this time."

"But we also don't know that it wasn't," Whale interjects, and Ruby glances back at him. His brows are knit together, and his hands are in his pockets. He's sitting on his stool halfway, like he can't make up his mind whether to leave or not. 

Ruby waves all this away, and takes a deep breath. "Look. I just want--I just want to get through today. The sooner we get through today, the sooner we'll get some answers." She picks up the coffee pot again, and refills Whale's mug before he has a chance to ask, then moves around him to start refilling everyone else's mugs at the booths behind him. As she moves, she can feel his eyes on her, and the hair at the back of her neck sticks up.

When she comes back around, he's gone, two ten dollar bills sitting at the counter where he was before. 

He's a doctor. He can afford to over-tip. She pockets the money, feels tremendously guilty, and ends up putting it in Granny's tip jar before anyone sees.

Stupid confusing day. Stupid confusing curse.

***

The next day is not better. 

They have the town hall meeting, but all that anyone can determine is that yes, they've been cursed again, and no, they don't know who did it. Regina doesn't show up. Ruby is unsurprised--she's not sure she would show up at a town meeting where everyone was going to accuse her of a crime either--but it certainly doesn't help dissuade everyone else that Regina is innocent. Ruby isn't even sure that she thinks that Regina _is_ innocent. 

Robin Hood and his Merry Men do not show up at that first town meeting, either. Either because no one told them about it, or because they don't know where the town hall is. Ruby keeps staring at the clock over the door as Mary Margaret and David talking in soothing dulcimer tones, the same sort of thing they always say:  _We'll get to the bottom of this. It will all be okay. We'll get home soon._

Home. Ruby's stomach twists, and she glances back through the crowd, over the irritable silhouette of her grandmother, to where Belle sits a few seats back, looking weary but determined. If they get to go home--back to the Enchanted Forest--how many of them will actually want to stay there? Does _Ruby_ want to stay there? 

She still doesn't know, and that is beginning to scare her.

"--if you need medical attention," a voice breaks through her inner monologue. Ruby looks up to see Whale, standing at the front of the room with David and Mary Margaret nodding encouragingly. "The nuns and I have a fully stocked supply of any medications you may need. I will be taking appointments for check-ups over the next few days. Just to make sure that we're all okay." There's that smile again, the reassuring one that has no actual warmth behind it. "I'm sure we'll all be fine."

 _No you're not_ , Ruby thinks. As Whale turns to sit down, he catches her eye--she's instantly sure that he was looking for her--and shrugs a little, as if to say,  _It can't be helped, they trust me_ , and Ruby feels a sudden wave of frustration. She stands up before Granny is finished talking to the people next to her and exits the hall without looking back.

***

On the third day, Emma and Henry come back.

Ruby is folding up the newspapers left behind on some tables when they enter the diner, and for a minute it's all so normal that she forgets that it's completely  _not_ normal. But then her sense comes rushing back, and she practically squeaks with surprise as Emma flashes a fond smile at her. Ruby, forgetting the newspapers on the table, runs over and throws her arms around Emma. "Oh my God, you're back!"

She pulls back instantly, realizing that this might not actually be the right thing to do. "I mean--do you--Emma, are you--"

"Hi Ruby," Emma says, tight-lipped. The exact same Emma as before, completely steady and calm, like no storm on earth could ever move her. A rock. Ruby smiles wide, so relieved that she's afraid she's going to cry. But Emma grips her arm, looks over her shoulder, and says, "Henry, go find us a table." 

Henry is so BIG. "Oh yeah," he replies, his vision totally focused on a video game in his hands, and Ruby is struck by how much his voice has changed. "Sure, mom." 

As he goes, Emma turns to Ruby, gesturing with her head toward Henry. "I remember everything," she whispers, her eyes wide, "but Henry doesn't. I told him we're just visiting because this is a town I've got some old friends in, so just--just act cool, okay?"

Ruby feels the shock trickle down her spine and nods, pursing her lips together. "Right. Are--are you guys okay?"

"We're fine," Emma sighs, a little bit louder this time, and crosses over toward where Henry is sitting already, still engrossed in his game. "Other than that my legs feel like they've been squished into me for too long."

Henry looks up at his mother for only a second as she slides into the booth in front of him. "I told you we should get out of the car more to stretch."

"Yeah, well," Emma says, her voice light and unaffected. "I just wanted to get here faster, that's all. To see everybody." She looks at Ruby and smiles tightly. 

Henry notices Ruby for what seems like the first time, and looks at her like someone he's never met before. Just a random waitress at a random diner. Ruby's heart sinks into her stomach. "Oh hey," he says, sounding genuinely interested for the first time. "Is this that place you said had good hot cocoa?"

"Yeah," Emma says, brightly. "You want one?"

"That sounds good," Henry says, "I'm kind of sick of fast food now."

Ruby flashes a smile at Henry, then at Emma, although terrified of the consequences of this, and already writing the script in her head as to what she's going to ask about it--and says, "Oh, uh, of course."

She crosses to the kitchen and mixes together a hot cocoa. Granny looks at her with raised eyebrows, clearly conveying a look of  _what the hell just happened_ , to which Ruby respond with a look of  _don't ask me I'm just the messenger please pass the whipped cream_. She adds the cinnamon without even thinking, puts it on a platter and brings it out. Henry is still looking at his video game, but Ruby places it in front of him gingerly, trying to make her voice sound as warm and welcoming as possible. "Here you go, Hen--young man." Good god, could she be any more stupid? "Nice hot cocoa."

She begins to walk away, but Henry interrupts--"Hey, cinnamon. How did you know?"

Ruby turns around to see a very clear  _yes how did you know don't screw this up Ruby_ look on Emma's face, and she smiles nervously between the two of them. "Uh, lucky guess. You've got a--cinnamon kind of face."

As she walks away she mentally hits herself. So much for her teenage-Ruby's plan to run away to Hollywood and act her way to stardom.

She looks over her shoulder to see Mary Margaret and David come in, awkwardly exchange greetings with Henry and Emma, and sit down at their booth. A wave of sadness brushes over her immediately. As terrible as it feels to have Henry not know who she is, she can't imagine how his grandparents feel. 

That thought is immediately made worse by Regina, whose mug Ruby filled two minutes ago, breaking said mug on the diner floor.

Ruby watches as Emma pulls Regina away to the back. Regina's face looks like someone hit it with a tire iron. Ruby exchanges a quick look with Granny, then gets out a broom and brush in order to sweep evidence of Regina ever having been uncomposed. Even after years and years, seeing Regina look like that... Ruby doesn't think that she'll ever get used to it. And Henry had looked right  _through_  Regina in the same way he'd looked through everyone who had come in. His memories are completely gone. He doesn't know anything at all. And although Ruby had hated Regina for so long, she feels bits of grief begin to poke through her heart, thinking about that look on her face. Regina loves Henry. Regina loves Henry more than anything else in the entire world.

She seems like she's in shock. If Henry and Emma weren't part of her plan--if Henry being here was completely unexpected--then maybe Regina really wasn't the person who cast this curse.

Emma and Regina leave out the back door without saying goodbye. Ruby overhears Mary Margaret assuring Henry that Emma will be back soon, which he accepts readily. Ruby smiles a little bit. Despite not remembering anything, Henry is comforted by Mary Margaret just the same. Everyone is. She just... has that effect on people.

After throwing the pieces of mug into the trash and washing her hands, Ruby comes back around the counter to pour some tea for Archie, a water dish for Pogo, and a cup of coffee for a red-haired woman before waving goodbye to David, who mouths  _Town meeting later_ at her as he walks out the door.

Of course. There's always a town meeting.

***

Ruby lets Granny go to the meeting, and stays behind to mind the diner while she goes--which really means watching Henry, as everyone else around him needs to make an appearance. In return, Granny gives her the night shift off. Although Ruby is itching to know what Emma is going to say, she has a feeling that there won't be that much new information disclosed. Beyond having Emma back, there haven't been that many new developments. David had the distinctive look of someone who was unhappy at not knowing more about the situation afoot. 

Everyone being gone at the meeting, even the other two waitresses, Ruby uses the time to clean the floor with a mop, and absent-mindedly watches Henry play his video game. Every once in a while he lets out a "oof" or a "yessss" or a "derezzed!" Who knows what 'derezzed' means, but it's refreshing to hear Henry's voice sounding calm and happy.

When everybody starts appearing from the meeting frowning and angrily murmuring, Ruby gets the impression that things are pretty much where they'd left them after the last meeting, with the exception that now everyone definitely thinks Regina did it.

"There's no doubt," Granny mutters, tying her apron around her waist and shaking her head, "this curse has Regina written all over it, I'm telling you."

"Right, Granny," Ruby tries to soothe, untying her own apron, already thinking about what she will wear when she gets out of here. "I'm sure Emma will get her."

"She will," Granny agrees confidently, and reaches out to put a hand on Ruby's shoulder before she moves away. "Be careful out there tonight. I mean it. The last thing we need right now is..."

Her voice trails off, but Ruby understands the connotation behind it. The last thing we need right now is the Wolf. She shakes her head. "The full moon isn't for two weeks."

"Either way, just... be careful."

"I will," she says, kissing her grandmother on the cheek. "I promise."

***

She's not sure what it is that makes her go to the hospital. It's not like Whale had been exactly forthcoming with information when he'd been at the diner the other day. And it's not like she really wants to talk to him, so much as she wants information. 

She's been able to control the Wolf more and more since coming back to Storybrooke. But she doesn't know what could have happened to her over the year that they've lost. There's a fair chance that she won't be able to control it anymore. What if this curse has taken away her ability to do that, too? After the last time she lost control in Storybrooke... Ruby isn't willing to take that chance again. Not with Billy dead. Not with Peter dead.

Maybe Whale has a drug that will knock her out. Make her unconscious all night, so that the change won't happen. And then Granny wouldn't have to lock her up in the back, and she wouldn't have to be a liability to anyone else.

She brings pastries in a basket, because who doesn't love pastries? Ruby is confident that she would be way more convincing with a chocolate eclair to back her up. 

When she comes into the front lobby of the hospital, though, it's clear that something is wrong. The air is thick with the scent of fear, and as Ruby makes her way up the stairs toward what she thinks she remembers to be Whale's office, a nun runs past her crying.  _Oh god. Already?_

She sees David at the top of the stairs, talking quietly with a man in a dark brown coat. "David," she says, trying to not let the worry perpetrate her voice. "What's going on?"

"Ruby," David starts, surprised. "What are you doing here?"

"I just--I was--" Think quick. "I heard something outside. Is everything okay?"

David looks at her, and Ruby can see different shades of decision-making cross his face before he settles on one, which she recognizes, disappointedly, as the face he makes when he's not going to tell her very much. "Everything is... okay. Listen, Ruby, you've got to be careful out here, okay? There's been some--some, uh, stuff."

"That's a way to put it," says the man standing next to David. He's new. Ruby turns to him, narrowing her eyes a bit. He smells... like leaves, damp leaves, and brush fire, and wood. He doesn't smell like Storybrooke at all, and Ruby's jaw drops before she has a chance to catch it.

"Oh," David says, always the polite one, "Ruby, this is--"

"Robin Hood," Ruby interjects for him, and smiles excitedly at Robin, who blinks, looking surprised to hear his own name in this place. "We heard you were here! I mean--everyone did. You guys are new--you weren't cursed before. I mean, obviously, you know that, but... it's weird." She doesn't have to tell him this. He already knows. "I was going to visit you guys in the forest later with some food--did you get any food?"

That was a lot of information to drop on someone at once. David still looks tired, but also a little bit amused. Robin just looks exhausted. "Well. Ah. Thank you. We were in the process of obtaining food, but--" here, Robin glances at David, "circumstances arose so as to discourage us from that further. I must confess, I am rather starving."

"Oh my god," Ruby says, quickly, and hands him the basket, pulling the towel off of the eclairs. "Here. I brought all of these. They're eclairs--chocolate-filled bread. Eat one, please! If I knew you were going to be here I would have come here first!"

Robin, startled, but also with the distinct look of a man who is not used to food being offered to him willingly, takes an eclair after a moment of hesitancy. "Thank you, my lady."

"No problem," Ruby says, beaming. It's been a rather long time since anyone has called her a lady, and she feels a sudden burst of energy from it. "Leroy said that you had your--your Merry Men with you."

Robin peers at her through a mouthful of eclair. "'es. This is very--very good." After swallowing, some color comes back into his face. Ruby looks between him and David, who has the grim, set look of someone who's just seen some serious shit. "They would appreciate these as well, if you're willing to offer them--"

"Of course," Ruby says, taking the basket back, still smiling at Robin, but feeling more and more like the world is secretly ending and she's accidentally stepped into the funeral. "Where are they?"

Robin points down the hall, to where a group of tall, burly-looking men are standing in front of a vending machine, punching it gently. 

"Oh."

"They didn't have new memories made up for them," David tells her. "They don't know how this world works."

"Right," Ruby says, and gathers up the basket firmly. "Well, I'm not letting anybody go hungry before we figure out who cursed us." She pauses, touches Robin's arm, and smiles. After a long moment, he smiles back. "Please, let me bring you back to my place. I'm sure we'll have plenty to feed you with."

"I wouldn't be so sure," Robin says. "My men are rather robust."

Ruby shakes her head. "You're not the only robust ones around here. We've fed a shrunk giant; I'm pretty sure you guys can't compete with that."

"I suppose not." Robin sounds a little stronger than he sounded before. He looks like he's... grieving. About what, she's sure she'll find out later. For now, David gestures quickly with his head over toward the Merry Men, which Ruby takes as a cue to get going so he can talk to Robin some more about whatever has just happened. Someday, Ruby is going to be the kind of person who people pull aside and explain things to. For now, she will have to just deal with only being that person for Mary Margaret. And Emma. Sometimes. 

The men look at her with such relief in their faces at the eclairs that Ruby feels worse and worse for not bringing more. She couldn't have known, but all the same, she wishes she'd packed the whole case. She explains her offer to them, and tells them to meet her outside in a few minutes after she's finished running the errand she came here to run. They look even more relieved at the prospect of receiving food that comes to them on plates instead of from a glowing machine. They walk down the hall in the direction from which she came, and she presses onward, one lone eclair sitting in her basket untouched.

She smells Whale before she sees him, and accompanying him the fresh air coming through the window he's standing in front of, which has been completely broken through. "Oh," she yelps quietly, shocked. He turns around sharply.

"What are you doing here?" His voice is tense, but quiet. He takes two steps forward toward her, frowning, every muscle in his shoulders tense.

She fumbles with words, suddenly finding it hard to say anything at all. "I..." 

Wordlessly, she holds out the chocolate eclair in the basket to him. 

He looks at the basket. He looks at her. 

"I, uh," she says.  _Ruby. Use your words, like a big girl. Come on._ "I--I brought you this."

Whale takes two steps forward, until he's directly in front of her. She always forgets how tall he is, until he's standing right there, this close to her. He looks so  _tired_ , like the exhaustion from before has colored every bone in his body. More than that, he looks... weary. She looks over his shoulder at the window, which is still dropping pieces of broken glass to the ground below. Something happened, and she wants desperately to ask him what, but something tells her that this isn't the right time. There's a look in his eyes, crazed, like he's not all here. 

Finally, he takes one more step, until he's uncomfortably close, looking at her, and she swallows. He looks directly at her, and then, down, to the basket in her hands. He picks up an eclair.

"An eclair," he says.

"Yup," she says, her voice wavering a little, trying to stay calm. He looks like he's about to collapse.

He reaches into the basket and picks it up, looking at it like a man who's drowning would look at a lifesaver. With no apology he stuffs one full half in his mouth, closes his eyes, and swallows. This continues for a minute, until he's eaten the entire thing. She watches him, quietly. When he's finished, he wipes his mouth with the back of his hand and sighs, opens his eyes, and blinks slowly at her, like he's slowly becoming unfrozen. 

"You're a lifesaver," he murmurs. 

She shrugs. "Chocolate and carbs. Just what the doctor ordered, right?"

He looks at her, and he's still so close to her. She can smell him again, that underlying scent of just him, different: a different scent entirely from anyone in the Enchanted Forest. There's still the overlying smells of the hospital, which are pungent and surrounding them, but she can smell him just the same, up close like this. And now it's mixed with chocolate. It's kind of giving her a headache, it's so intense. "Right."

"What happened?"

He shakes his head. "They brought in a patient--Nolan and the others--a man from the forest. New, not from the first curse. He had been... bitten."

At 'bitten,' her stomach drops. "What kind of bite?"

"Huge. I've never seen anything like it." Whale splays his fingers wide, trying to portray the size of the bite. "And then--something  _happened_." He peers down the hall. She follows his eyesight: David and the Merry Men have walked down the steps, are standing outside the hospital doors. He turns back to her. "We were attempting to sedate him--and he just--" He laughs, like this is too much. "He whipped out a  _tail._ "

"What?" Ruby's heart is pounding in her ears. "A--tail?"

"Or something." He shakes his head again, his mouth filled with that bitter smile still, like he can't believe his own words. But they live in Storybrooke, Maine, and this is just one of many ridiculous things that has happened to them, so many times. "He just--changed. Into--you're not going to believe this--a monkey. With wings."

She stares at him, mouth open. He nods. "I know. I know."

"With wings?"

"Yeah." And he turns, points at the window. "It knocked us all over with its tail... thing. And it just flew out the window." She stares at the window, then back at him. He puts a hand to his forehead, like he's trying to cool himself down. "I really have no idea what it even was."

"That's..." Crazy. Nuts. Ridiculous. "That sounds about right for Storybrooke, but that doesn't mean it's okay." She takes a deep breath, and he laughs quietly, appreciatively, at her statement. 

"Yeah," he says, "I think we've got the market cornered on exotic happenstance. New Orleans could learn a lesson or two from us."

"We could use the tourism revenue," she murmurs, and watches as he wipes his face with his sleeve.

"Thank you for that," he says, after a minute, looking at her again. He seems to realize all of a sudden that he's standing extremely close to her, and he steps back a little. Some color is returning to his face, but slowly. "I've seen a lot of crazy stuff at this point, but--" He shrugs. "I guess there's still stuff out there that can freak you out."

"Don't worry," Ruby murmurs, and reaches out a hand to touch his elbow before she knows she's doing it. He steadies immediately when she touches him, like he's focusing. Or maybe unfocusing. "We're going to figure this out."

"Yeah," he replies, and smiles at her, a little bit, a thank you smile. "Yeah."

And then they're just two people standing in a hallway again. Two people who just had an entire conversation about a guy who turned into a monkey with wings and flew out the window of the local hospital.

She turns to go, and takes a few steps before Whale touches her shoulder, tentatively, as if he's almost surprised that he's doing it. "Uh," he says, surprised at himself, and then, swallowing, shakes his head. "Do you, uh, work tomorrow?"

Ruby rolls her eyes a little, nods. "I always work. In the morning."

"Oh, right." He looks like he's about to say something else, and then stops himself. "Uh. Well. I guess I'll... see you then."

"Right," she says, slowly, feeling a warmth creep up from her toes through her fingertips. "I'll see you then."

"Stay careful," he warns. "Don't go anywhere near the town border. Stay with Nolan."

"I will," she promises. "I'm walking home with about six guys with swords and one with a gun. I think I'll be okay."

She crosses down the hallway, to where David and the Merry Men are waiting, feeling a little bit dazed. Flying monkeys? That was undoubtedly creepy, and terrifying, and all manners of horrifying--monkeys shouldn't have wings--and if he was a Merry Man, she knew that Robin Hood would probably stop at nothing to bring him back. And she needed to go home and feed these men. They shouldn't have to starve in the forest, just because they were new.

Ruby files away the look on Whale's face as he was thanking her into things to think about later, but it stays in her eyes as she walks into the fresh air of the Storybrooke night. 

So much of this was new.

 _Be careful_ , she tells herself, but she thinks it in his voice. 

"Okay," she mouths.  _Okay_.

**Author's Note:**

>  **Email** : unfoundgallimaufry@gmail.com | **Tumblr** : [temporarily](http://temporarily.tumblr.com)


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